Search found 3 matches for vikings

Someone asked elsewhere whether the Coomodel Vikings gear would fit on Phicen's M34 or M35. Although I suspected I knew the answer, I gave it a try with some of the extra parted-out parts I had picked up (I was not about to mess with the fully-kitted-out boxed set figures). In the end, with the help of my extra customized Conan head and a couple of pieces from the Barbarian Fantasy Warrior sets by Kaustic Plastik, it became a spontaneous kitbash. I also repainted and "furred" the helmet. It is loosely inspired by a couple of different Conan looks; consider it Conan's Alter Ego... or long-lost twin... or just something Conanesque. So here he is, in the last photo also sizing up the real Conan...

Considering it was basically an accidental kitbash, I think it turned out ok. What do you think?

After reviewing the Vikings Vanquisher Valhalla version two-figure set by Coomodel HERE, I ended up going for the Viking ship (longship, drakkar/drekar) prow diorama piece that was designed to go with them. Here is a brief review, with a baker's dozen of photos. Since there is little here that is comparable to actual action figures, I have foregone the process of assigning specific points to the different categories.

Packaging

The diorama set comes packaged in two separate boxes, one containing the ship, the other containing the printed background. The ship comes in a large, deep, and surprisingly heavy box. Decorated with a graphic representation of the piece, this box is essentially what we call a "shipper"; there is no interior cardboard box here, and the ship comes nearly packed in a foam container directly inside the shipper box. Everything is safe and collector friendly. The printed background comes in a separate, larger but much shallower box, which has no graphics on it, besides the product's logo/label (still misspelled "Vikihgs").

Sculpting and Accessories

The ship prow appears to be mostly a single sculpted/molded piece, nicely finished to resemble the wooden construction of a Viking longship's prow with overlapping planks nailed together and a carved decoration along the stem. The surface is given enough imperfections and indentations to look like actual wood. The only area where I wish there had been more attention to detail is the upper surface of the "railing," which is quite smooth and bland, and not sculpted to look like a series of interconnected planks; admittedly, you are not likely to notice this unless you are viewing the piece from the "inside" out.

The sculpted dragon's head is a separate piece, which is attached to the top of the main piece -- partly fitting into the opening, partly due to a magnet. The magnet helps hold it in place, but is not strong enough to keep it from falling out if you turned it over. The somewhat stylized dragon's head is very nicely sculpted, with some additional Nordic detail to resemble what would have been carved in wood. With the dragon's head in place, the prow is about 21.5 inches (55 cm) tall. The last photo in the review shows you the relative height of the ship compared to figures standing on the same surface.

The only real accessories in the normal sense of the word are the two ropes, which are nicely scaled and just the sort of thing you would expect to find aboard a ship; you will see them in some of the photos below. (The "simpler" piece, made up of two connected rope hoops, is intended to go over the head of the prow and allow the figures to support themselves by holding onto it, but I forgot to put it there.) If the ship's prow is itself a diorama environment for your figures, it comes with diorama pieces of its own. First, there are the two pieces of sculpted breaking waves, which can be fitted along the sides of the hull. The sculpt is detailed and beautiful, the "water" is the right balance of translucent and opaque, but somehow it does not look quite realistic to me. I was worried that it would come permanently attached to the hull, but was very relieved to see that it was not. So you can easily display the piece with or without the sculpted waves.

In addition to the optional sculpted waves, there is of course the printed background. It is printed on both sides of what appears to be thick stiff cardboard. The background folds into two: one section is wider (about 23.5 inches/60 cm), the other narrower (about 19.66 inches/50 cm); both are 27.5 inches (70 cm) tall. The wider section of the background shows the rest of the ship in a vague and foreshortened perspective, with the unfurled sail bellowing in the wind. The whole scene is depicted as a dark and stormy environment (why is the sail unfurled in all that, I don't know). While not particularly shiny, the printed surface does produce some glare from the light.

The printing on both sides of the background allows you to set up the scene with the ship facing either right or left, and the sail always behind it.

The print has not (yet) creased and torn in the corner fold, though I expect it might eventually, if handled and repositioned often enough; having a corner fold is a bit unfortunate, but I suppose there was little choice when it came to the design (though there may have been a way of attaching a single unfolded printout to the far ends of the background). I still think it works fairly well.

Paint

There is relatively little to say about paint when it comes to this piece (not counting the printed background). The molded hull and dragon's head are colored an appropriate dark brown for a wooden ship, especially one that might have been covered with pitch to keep water out. There is some translucent color to the sculpted waves, which is subtle enough to be reasonably realistic for the most part; perhaps the foam on the crests could have been whiter.

Fun Factor

By itself, the Viking Ship diorama environment is more a work of art than anything particularly fun. But as long as you have action figures you can pose on or in relation to it, you should have no problem adding fun to its beautiful, yet savage look.

Value

This is rather difficult for me to estimate, since I am in the habit of collecting and reviewing action figures, not dioramas and backgrounds. I got mine from Big Bad Toy Store for about $170 (USD), with a very reasonable $4 economy shipping. Given the size, number of boxes (two), and weight of the product alone, I think this is a very decent deal. My suspicions are confirmed by the palpably and in some cases criminally higher prices the product commands on eBay (ranging from about $250 to $550 -- with shipping included). If you like what you see, you might want to get it while BBTS still has it in stock.

Things to watch out for

Not too much, as the piece is pretty solid and in fact quite hefty. That said, I have not tried dropping it to see if it would shatter or crack (or, perhaps just as likely, cause damage to everything else in its path). Remember that the dragon's head is heavy enough, and if you flipped the ship over, the magnet will not be strong enough to keep it attached. I also noticed that, despite the felt on the bottom of the hull and the sculpted waves, sliding them around or removing them carelessly still scratched my work surface -- you might want to be careful if you are placing them on a something valuable or very visible.

Overall

If you like the piece, have the money to spend, and the space to put it (or store it), you will probably be happy with this product. It is large and bulky, but would probably not work as well if it were not. The sculpted pieces and ropes are near perfect. The background is perhaps overly specific (dark stormy night with counter-intuitively unfurled sails), can produce some glare, and has the potentially unsightly corner fold. Nevertheless, it still works fairly well, and we have rarely seen a company go through this much trouble to equip its action figures with such diorama elements. Of course, if this came standard with the figures at no great additional price, it would have been even more impressive, but that does not seem very likely to happen. I am about to move, and this new acquisition is definitely adding up to my anxiety about that process... otherwise, I am very happy with it.

Ah, the Vikings... like pirates these rogues have captured popular imagination and been turned into exciting and adventurous heroes, with little regard to the fact that their modern admirers would be quite miffed, to say the least, if a Viking warband landed on their shores and made off with their televisions, DVD/blu-ray players, i-pads, computers, cars, books, money, children, collectibles, and maybe lives... and yet modern revisionist historians have been busily asserting that Vikings were not the stereotypical bloodthirsty barbarians portrayed in the sources (tell that to their victims)... but I digress...

There have been all sorts of Vikings (though technically the term is specific to the raiders of Scandinavian origin that plagued their settled neighbors -- and each other -- in the Early Middle Ages)...

and (using items from the Ignite Viking sets)

and even

but today I am offering up a review of a recent pair of

produced recently by Coomodel. I am reviewing the Warlord and Berserker set, which comes with two additional items that you would not get if you were buying each figure separately. Additionally, there is a diorama environment of the prow of a Viking ship that you could get for your figures, but I have not purchased and am not including in this review (for it, see HERE). Update: I have now reviewed the Viking Ship HERE.

Packaging: 4/4 stars

The set of Vikings comes in a large box stored within a decorated shipper, which is impressive in and of itself (my retailer was kind enough to place that in an external box, which may or may not be the case if you purchase it from somewhere else). On the shipper and the box the word "Vikings" is misspelled "Vikihgs" -- a small but embarrassing slip.

The box proper has a nice color closeup image of the two figures fully kitted out in action poses.

The box is sturdy and in fact somewhat difficult to open, and contains two black foam trays that keep everything safe and sound, yet easy to access. The upper tray holds the figure, sword, and most of the extra hands, while most of the weapons, the shields, display stands, and other accessories are in the lower tray. Everything is collector-friendly and safe, and I very much appreciate the foam trays (instead of plastic).

Sculpting: 4/4 stars

These are not, to the best of my knowledge based on specific actors, so it is difficult to argue with the accuracy of the head sculpts and it is somewhat easier to get a high score in this category than it might have been otherwise. Both look sufficiently like what we would expect from Vikings, sporting bald and mostly shaved heads, the latter with a sculpted braid hanging from the back; on both head sculpts the mustaches are sculpted, but the beards are made of "real" hair in a matching color. The transition from sculpted to "real" facial hair is as good as can be expected, and given that it is a novel and ambitious technique, I will not split hairs over its quality (see what I did there?). The braided Warlord is portrayed with a relatively young appearance and neutral expression, while the bald Berserker is shown as more aged (grizzled?) and shouting out commands or threats or curses. The overly-emotive expression of the Berserker gives it a slightly more cartoonish aspect, but not overly so.

Overall, I find the head sculpts excellent. My only annoyance was that the "real" hair beards have a tendency to jut out over the chest, and even after a water treatment they took plenty of futzing to look about right. Perhaps I should have used product on them.

There is of course plenty of sculpting on other items that come in this set, from the armor to the shields and weapons. As you will see from the photos, these are all very good, especially the detailed work on the axes, which really conveys the ornate styles of the high-end Scandinavian (and more generally northern European) art of the Viking Age. The largely fantasy plate armor elements are given slightly less fine detail and the helmets fall somewhere in-between, but everything is sculpted very well.

Paint: 4/4 stars

The paint work seems to be nice and sharp throughout, though I thought there might have been a little more contrast in the sculpted hair -- then again, since these guys are not based on anyone real, I am not going to worry about this perceived issue. The Berserker's yelling mouth gives us opportunity for looking at more detail, and it appears pretty convincing at any reasonable distance.

The quality of paint carries over to the accessories, and looks just right: the partly carved horn, the decorated wine-skin, the wooden shields, etc. If I have any misgivings about the paint, it is that we do not see any "gold" or "brass" on what is supposed to be the most impressive piece, the exclusive great horned helm.

Articulation: 3/4 stars

I am assuming the underlying body is Coomodel's, and I have very little experience with it. The body can probably achieve and maintain most desired poses in regular circumstances, but here is it weighed down -- literally -- by several layers of clothing and armor and heavy die-cast-metal weapons. It is unlikely you will get more than a 90 degree angle at the elbow and knees, and I was impressed the figures could be made to sit naturally. The arms have some trouble supporting the heavier weaponry when stretched out or raised, due to the weight of these accessories and the somewhat loose joints (which would probably have worked just fine with lighter, plastic accessories). The arms also cannot easily reach straight up, due to the shoulder armor of one figure, and the layers of armor and fur on the other. All of this is understandable, yet still rather annoying. I appreciate the two-piece boots, which allow for some ankle movement. Due to the weight of clothing, armor, and accessories, the figures are a bit top heavy and sometimes overwhelm said ankles in a propensity to falling on their faces (or backs) -- which should make you appreciate the included display stands.

Accessories: 4/4

These are arguably the greatest thing about the set. You might like or dislike the head sculpts on the basis of personal taste, you might accept or object to the armor on the basis of historicity. But the weapons and accessories that come with these figures are executed in excellent detail and (at least for the most part) can pass for historically accurate (I am rather dubious about the double-headed axe, although it certainly a beautiful piece).

One problem I had with the set is determining what was supposed to go with which figure, although I suppose the beauty of getting both is that you can mix and match to your taste. I tried to determine this on the basis of the promotional images for the separate figures and arranged them accordingly in the photos below, but note that the instruction sheets actually appear to swap the accessories between the two figures (unless they simply mislabeled the Warlord and Berserker).

According to the promotional materials, the Warlord comes with the more historically-accurate hornless helmet, the large shield, the horn and wine-skin, the smallest axe, and the fine sword and scabbard; the Berserker comes with the small-horned helmet, the two larger axes, and the knife with scabbard. Each figure comes with a belt to which are to be attached a bag and a pouch; one belt is supposed to get two, the other one additional suspension rings. The Warlord also has an additional finer belt with a decorated boss on it. Each figure comes with a raised circular-base black display stand. In terms of extra body parts, the selection is the same for each figure: in addition to the sword grip hands that come on the body, there are pairs of fist hands, semi-relaxed hands, spread-fingered hands, and alternative sword-grip hands (for larger shafts like the large axes?).

As noted above, the sculpt and paint job on the weaponry and accessories is beautifully done. The axe-heads and sword and knife blades are die-cast metal, as are the three helmets (for the most part -- they also include "horn," "cloth," and "leather" elements, and the cheek pieces on one helmet are made of plastic). The sword has an etched inscription in futhark characters, but as far as I can tell they are gibberish.

Speaking of three helmets, I should note that the third helmet, a great horned helm, is an exclusive for the two-figure set, as is the small shield or buckler.

Overall, the accessories are excellent in both quality and selection. Note that the metal pieces can make them heavier than their plastic counterparts and, as noted, that could be a challenge for some weaker joints (one more reason why I am not uniformly elated with die-cast-metal use in this scale, but I know I am in the minority). Also note that the helmets are actually fairly small, designed to look about right in this scale and to take advantage of the bald (or almost bald) heads of these specific figures. Trying to put them on your other head sculpts could be a challenging and possibly damaging endeavor.

Outfit: 4/4 stars

Remembering that these are fantasy figures intended to appeal to our popular imagination of Vikings rather than actual historical Vikings, the outfit is detailed, fitting, and very good indeed. Both figures feature cloth, plastic, leather (pleather?), fur (faux fur?) elements in their outfits, combined and intertwined in an effective manner (for example the leather straps wrapped around the upper parts of the boots). The chain mail is a type of fabric, while the Berserker also wears a fine coat of scale armor -- look at the photo of the box, because on the figure it is almost completely obscured by all that fur. The most fantastical (i.e., fanciful) elements are perhaps plate shoulder armor on the Warlord, the plate shoulder and upper right arm armor on the Berserker, and the vambraces on both.

Also fantastical are the horns on the helmets, which are a feature of the way that Scandinavians and other ancient Germanic tribes imagined their gods and supernatural beings; apart from some stylized metal horns on Bronze-Age (ceremonial?) helmets (see the first photos above), these do not seem to have been found on actual, functional Viking helmets. Apart from the horns, the helmets look fairly close to what was actually fashionable in Dark-Age northern Europe (even among the Anglo-Saxons, who would later be among the famous victims of Viking raids).

The bulky outfit (in part due to the multiple layers) causes some restriction to the articulation, but that was covered above.

Fun Factor: 3/4 stars

This is hard to gauge, as it depends on each individual's tastes, imagination, and the remainder of their collection. Getting both figures rather than just one automatically ups the score in this category, as you can pose them together in a variety of poses or scenes. If you were to get the Viking ship diorama as well, you might have even more fun with them -- or less, as you might feel constrained to put them aboard and leave it at that. The heaviness of the figures and their accessories and, to a lesser extent, the limitations of the articulation imposed by the outfit, are a cause of some concern -- you would do well to make sure to use the included stands (or other stands of your choice), as these will topple as readily as real Vikings would put their greedy paws on monastic treasure or screaming virgins.

Value: 2/4 stars

In the United States the set retails at about $390. That is about $195 per figure, which is only slightly better than getting each figure for about $200, although you do get the two exclusive pieces with the set (the great horned helm and the small shield). High end companies have pushed the price of sixth-scale action figures well past $200 in the last few years, especially where we are dealing with licensed collectibles. Coomodel's product is high end (what with the attention to detail and the plethora of accessories), though it is not, to the base of my knowledge, part of a license. For that reason, I give it a middling score in this category.

Things to watch out for

Not much, other than the propensity for your figures to fall on their face. Hands swap reasonably easily, but as always I advise heating them up with a hair dryer (or hot water). The metal rings holding some of the accessories together could become loose, so keep track of the small parts and try to close any opening with pliers.

Overall: 3.5 stars

When these were first advertised, I flinched at the price and at the fantastical (i.e., unhistorical) aspects. They also reminded me of the stylized villains we had seen in Pathfinder. But when they were released and I started seeing them parted out, I came to appreciate the excellence of the product more fully. There were so many pieces I wanted to get, and the parted-out prices for them were still rather high, so I ended up getting the whole two-figure set. And I do not regret it. The product is of excellent quality and lends itself to various uses in and of itself, or in combination with others. I hope this review has been helpful and informative for you.